obsessed with vibrating air molecules

▶ fascinating insight into next generation UAV technology for screen industry via the finalists of this NZ tech competition – intriguing that one of the categories is to minimise rotor noise… it would be interesting to augment the sound aspect of UAVs – there must be a way to combine that freaky effect of speaking through a fan, with quadcopter rotors!

▶ interesting Max for LIVE idea: an overlay for video, so you can map panning to follow onscreen objects… Imagine in the future, adding facial recognition & auto pan foley to follow where an actor is onscreen!

All this requires a very particular – and somewhat strange – set of talents and fascinations. You need the ability not only to hear with an almost superhuman acuity but also the technical proficiency and Job-like patience to spend hours getting the sound of a kettle’s hiss exactly the right length as well as the right pitch – and not only the right pitch but the right pitch considering that the camera pans during the shot, which means that the viewer’s ear will subconsciously anticipate hearing a maddeningly subtle (but critical) Doppler effect, which means that the tone the kettle makes as it boils needs to shift downward at precisely the interval that a real kettle’s hiss would if you happened to walk by at that speed.

found this location by accident – drove to Fortrose to shoot a shipwreck only to find out it is only visible at very low tide… so I went for a drive out to the coast for a few hours, hoping the tide might go out enough before sunset.. It didn’t, I’ll revisit it tomorrow… but was hard to leave this lighthouse as the light turned golden…

beautiful & more than a little scary flying my drone over the lighthouse & ocean – sea was so calm, not much wind but there would be no retrieving it if anything went wrong!!!
shot with DJI Phantom 3 Pro

I’ve wanted to shoot this location for about 3 years now… Its in the Catlins, which I’ve visited 2 or 3 times previously, but they are so complex that six months in this area wouldn’t reveal all…
Anyway – Nugget Point, google image search it & you will get why I am going there…
5D, Distagon & drone at the ready!

While I was wandering around Google Earth I zoomed out… & then back in, to this:

Such distinctively Maori artwork!
(although carved by time & not hand)

Its an odd name for a beach: Ocean Beach… be like calling a river Water River or something… Stopped here on way home from my drone recording session & had enough batteries left to fly here & shoot some video.
It is amazing how stable the DJI Phantom 3 is – I sat up there, about 100m up & filmed waves breaking along the coast for 4 or 5 minutes, without any camera movement. Its like the worlds largest tripod!